The world’s biggest scientific experiment, designed to re-create in miniature the conditions of the early universe shortly after the Big Bang 14bn years ago, is scheduled to start in late August.

Cern, the European particle physics centre outside Geneva, will send the first beam of hydrogen nuclei (protons) around the 27km circular tunnel of its new atom smasher, the $8bn (€5bn, £4bn) Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at almost the speed of light.